Briefly

Blood banks are declaring fewer critical shortages these days and, in some cases, cutting staff in response to dwindling demand for blood – the result of fewer elective surgeries being performed and medical advances that curb bleeding in the operating room.

The nation's blood-collection system has undergone a dramatic change from just a decade ago, when agencies that oversee the blood supply worried whether they could keep up with demand.

Blood centers shifted “from a collect-as-much-as-you-can mentality to a collect-to-need mentality,” said Dr. Darrell Triulzi, director of the Institute for Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh. “They started collecting only what they needed. That's new to the industry.”

Heroin alternative might be surfacing

An intravenous, highly addictive drug from Russia – one that can destroy tissue and blood vessels, turning skin greenish and scaly – may be showing up in the U.S.

Doctors in Arizona last month treated two patients whose condition was consistent with the use of the drug, called krokodil, which means “crocodile” in Russian. Concocted from lighter fluid, paint thinner and codeine tablets, krokodil is seen as an inexpensive substitute for heroin. Besides an apparent case in Massachusetts in April, addicts in the U.S. have not taken to krokodil so far.

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